Exploring the predictors and outcomes of the adultification of adolescents

The purpose of this study was to assess the predictors and outcomes of children who are asked to perform adult roles during their adolescence. Adultification is the exposure of youth to adult knowledge and roles within the context of their families. Burton\u27s (2007) Conceptual Model of Adultification of Economically Disadvantaged Families was partially tested in this study. Using the first and third wave of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), the relationships between perceiving oneself as having been adultified in adolescence and family context in adolescence (e.g., parental time, parental physical and mental health, parenting skills, family size, family structure, family poverty, neighborhood safety, family closeness, culture, and immigrant status) and adolescent attributes (e.g., age, birth order, gender, physical and emotional maturity) were examined. In addition assets and liabilities of being adultified in adolescence (responsible behaviors, mental health, risk taking behaviors, and civic participation) were examined as participants reached emerging adulthood. Results showed that the predictors of having healthy parents, lack of parenting skill, family closeness, adolescent psychological availability, lack of autonomous decision making, and working less around the house were strongest in the context of all others. Adultification was also negatively related to the outcomes of living autonomously in adulthood, transitions of emerging adulthood, number of sexual partners, but positively related to smoking marijuana and binge drinking. Future directions are discussed